Famous Last Words
The common room was relatively quiet that night, as the Marauders were out doing something silly. Lily laid out her homework and tried to get a decent amount of potions done but the day's events were reverberating around her head.
"He bloody winked at me once and now I cannot get him out of my head." Lily thought, her inner voice growling, "Even though he is completely gorgeous, with cute ruffled hair and…"
Her mental hand whipped across her face.
"Snap out of it girl, he's still a complete git!" she thought, grinning at her mad conversation with herself.
She bent over her parchment and began to write out the many uses of Venomous Tentacular spines in poisons.
The portrait swung in and Remus's voice reached Lily's ears.
"God damn it, Padfoot! What have I said about large, obvious hints in the Great Hall?"
He stormed into the common room, looking thoroughly irritated, with Sirius at his heels, leaping around like a playful puppy.
"Come on, Moony!" Sirius whined, "It was just a little joke! You know, 'it's that kind of month'? What's so obvious about that?"
Remus spun around and almost snarled wolfishly at Sirius.
"Not funny! Prongs will agree with me on this one!"
James had followed them into their rather loud corner of the common room. He raised an eyebrow at Sirius, who almost cowered.
"Padfoot." He started, frowning, "That was a huge risk. I reckon that some of the other students already might have guessed the secret but are too scared to say anything."
Sirius grinned feebly.
"But it was such fun!" He protested.
Remus shook his head, sadly.
"You know, it might be fun for you to walk a thin line about this in public but it's not for me. I walk too many already and you don't want to push it."
He spun around and hunched his shoulders over. Lily noticed that he seemed slightly larger than usual. His face also seemed more lined. Remus sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair, showing his strain.
"Especially not at this exact point in time."
Sirius swallowed and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder in an apologetic way.
"Sorry, mate." He said, meek for once, "I guess I kind of forgot what was happening with you."
James laughed and knelt in a praying position.
"Oh my god! This is a miracle! Praise the almighty lord!"
Sirius spun around and raised an eyebrow.
"What's up with you?" he wanted to know.
James stood up and ruffled his hair.
"I just think that I would never see the day that Padfoot apologises! Praise the lord!"
Sirius pushed James playfully and James chuckled. He grabbed Sirius in a headlock and the play fight escalated from there.
Lily groaned.
"Bloody hell, can't they just lay off for a little while?" she thought as she stood up and stormed over to the wrestling boys.
"Potter! Black! Some of us are trying to study!"
Remus looked at her, a smirk on his pale face.
"It's no use, Lily. You have no idea how many times I have tried to separate these two. Let them just get it out of their system."
He grinned at her and she noticed the slight pointing of his canines. She was beginning to realise something that made everything more sense.
Especially the prank that she had overheard.
Remus walked upstairs, shaking his head. Sirius and James! Sometimes he felt slightly left out but he knew that it was already too dangerous letting anyone get too close to a werewolf.
He stretched back and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He knew that the paleness of his face, the slight increase in size and the slight sharpening of his teeth meant that he wasn't far away from full moon. And he wasn't far away from the night that he would need all his control to stop from killing.
"Sometimes this really does reek." Remus though as he changed into his pyjamas, "Things would be better sometimes if I had died."
As he snuggled comfortably into his bed he looked out the window at the almost full moon. He shut his eyes and let sleep carry him off.
Outside his bane continued to move across the sky.
The next morning was kicked off by Sirius, who jumped on all of the beds until the Marauders were forced up and out into the day. He especially had fun with James.
"Come on, Prongs! Lily is waiting for you in the common room!"
James bolted dead upright and changed at the speed of light. He fixed his glasses and ruffled his hair. Grinning like a loon, he ran down the stairs.
Remus yawned and stretched.
"That was cruel to Prongs, Padfoot. You know she won't be."
Sirius shrugged as he finished putting on his robes.
"Mieh, easiest way to get him out of bed."
Peter laughed at the thought.
"I want to see his expression!" he cried with glee as he walked out of the room.
"What a silly bugger." Sirius remarked to Remus, who glanced at him with a smile and descended down the stairs.
"Sirius sighed and put his hands on his hips in triumph. He looked around at the empty room and scratched his head before realising that he was actually being left behind.
"Hey! Wait for me!" he called, running down the stairs after the rest of the Marauders.
Sirius skidded to a halt with the rest of the Marauders, including a very downcast James.
"Ha, aren't you a sucker?" He jeered.
James growled.
"Don't do that again or I will break those lovely white teeth of yours into a million shards." He threatened.
Sirius laughed, before realising he was actually serious. His smile disappeared like water down a drain.
"Ah, shorry den." He murmured, looking at the ground and attempting to speak without showing teeth.
James laughed and ruffled his hair as he caught sight of Lily.
"No problem, mate. Just don't do it again and you will be fine."
Sirius grinned as James took a deep breath.
"Morning, Evans." James said, his voice going deep.
Lily grabbed his arm.
"I need to talk with you, Potter." She muttered, her green eyes flashing.
Lily didn't know why, out of all the Marauders, she grabbed James. Maybe it was because Sirius was not as close to her, Remus was the main thing she wanted to talk about and she didn't particularly trust Peter.
She dragged him over to a corner of the common room, trying to ignore Sirius's snide comments, although an absolute gem reached her ears.
"Well, it looks like Prongs is going to find out whether Lily is a natural red head!"
Lily raised an eyebrow and shouted back at Sirius.
"Better him than you!"
She slapped her hands over her mouth at this rather open comment and blushed. James raised an eyebrow at her and quirked a slight smile, looking her up and down. Sirius barked a laugh and opened his mouth before Remus shot him a warning look.
Lily looked back at James and uncovered her mouth.
"I didn't mean that." She snapped.
James's smirk turned into a full-blown grin.
"It's ok, Evans. I have completely forgotten what that exchange was. Now tell me, was there anything else you wanted apart from me helping you to find out what your natural hair colour is?'
Lily opened her mouth to reply with indignation before James laughed.
"Just toying with you, Evans. What was it you really wanted?"
Lily took a deep breath.
"I know about Remus." She confessed.
Immediately James's face snapped into poker mode.
"What about Remus?" He asked lightly, though he spoke with steel.
"I know about him being a…" Lily started before James slapped a hand over her mouth. He looked around.
"Not here." He hissed.
James got to his feet.
"Walk with me."
James and Lily strolled through corridors while Lily told James all she knew. She told him about the guessing, the watching as Remus changed over the course of the month, the fact that he was absent at some of the prefect meetings almost every month.
James groaned.
"What else do you know?" he asked, rubbing his face.
Lily sighed.
"This is the most important part. I know about your prank."
James smiled and Lily noticed how white his teeth were.
"Which one?" he asked, roguishly.
Lily sighed again.
"The one about putting Severus Snape in mortal danger."
James's smile evaporated.
"Damn it, Evans." He cursed softly, "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"
Lily nodded.
"Please, James. I'm not going to turn you in, because then everyone would know about Remus, but I am going to ask you. Please don't do this."
James grinned.
"You called me James." He commented, savouring the experience.
Lily groaned and grabbed his shirtfront.
"Potter!" she snarled as she pushed him against the wall, "Don't do this. Snape might be a bastard but this could kill him!"
James gasped in pain as a spiky candleholder dug into his back.
"Evans, you are hurting me!" He snapped.
Lily pushed harder.
"Promise me." She demanded.
The bell for the next class rang.
"Turn me loose, Evans." James hissed, "I don't think you want anyone to see us in this compromising position."
Lily, despairing, let him go. James smoothed down the front of his robes. Without a reply, he turned on his heel and stormed off towards the first class of the day.
Lily rubbed her temples. This was going to be one heck of a day.
Lily stumbled up to her room at the end of dinner. She collapsed on her bed, willing her life to change. She had gotten three new essays and she had to worry about the Marauders. James had been surprisingly discreet about the morning, although it didn't seem like he was planning to stop the prank.
Lily rolled off her bed and was about to get to her feet when a gleam caught her eye. She reached under one of her friend's beds to find a bottle of Firewhiskey.
Lily groaned and was about to throw it out when she spotted the label
"Ogden's Original Firewhiskey: leave all your worries in flame!"
Lily sighed. Surely one little tipple couldn't hurt…
Famous last words